Open Questions For Summer Reading/Writing AP English Literature & Composition Seffner Christian Academy

Transcription

1 Open Questions For Summer Reading/Writing AP English Literature & Composition Seffner Christian Academy Students: The following questions (shortened in form) were taken from past years AP released exams, or exams which are now available for your study. Use any two (2) of these essay questions to apply to the two novels (or the single larger novel) you are reading this summer. Choose questions which, in your judgment, best fit the book(s) you are reading. Papers are due the first day of class. They may be turned in on disc, jump drive/flash drive, or, preferred method: sent by attachment as Word documents to: (Having your papers in electronic form allows me to use my Microsoft Office program to make comments and corrections, in red ink, directly to your papers.) Writing Guidelines: (All papers typed, two pages minimum, double-spaced) 1. Think how you want to answer the prompt (the question). 2. Set up a working outline, which you may modify as you go. 3. Organize your essay by paragraphs ( ), with main points. 4. Have an opening paragraph with a thesis. 5. Be sure to support your generalizations with text-specific details from the novel(s). 6. Have a strong concluding paragraph. 7. Be sure to proofread your essays. a. This means read it over more than once. b. Check spelling Spellcheck will not catch awl mistakes! 1) Choose 2 works, and show how the significance of their titles is developed through devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view. 2) Analyze a first chapter of a novel or opening scene of a play. Explain how it introduces the major themes of the work. 3) Write a dialogue between 2 characters with incompatible views on a specific issue. Try to reveal the qualities and attitudes of the characters in what they say and how they say it. 4) Choose a work of literature written before Write an essay in which you argue for or against its relevance for a person in today s world. 1

2 AP English Literature & Composition Open Questions (con t) 5) Show how a stereotyped character functions to achieve an author s purpose. 6) Conflict of the individual will versus the majority will. Discuss the moral and ethical implications. 7) How is a character s rejection or longing for the past used to develop a theme in a work of literature? 8) Select an implausible incident or character and relate it to the more plausible or realistic elements in the work. 9) Evil or immoral character: How does a full representation of that character make us sympathetic? 10) Passion v. responsibility: Discuss conflict, and the effect on character and responsibility. 11) Choose a sustained allusion to myth, Bible, or literature. How does it enhance meaning? 12) No scene of violence exists for its own sake. Explain how it contributes to the whole. 13) Analyze the nature of a character s villainy. How does it enhance meaning? 14) Select a memorable line of poetry, or scene from a play, novel, or epic. Why is it effective? 15) Select a work that mixes pleasure and disquietude. Explain the sources of this reaction. 16) Show how the author s manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the total work. 17) Note attitudes an author wishes to modify. Analyze the techniques the author uses to influence readers. 18) How are the mental/psychological events given suspense usually associated with external events? 19) Analyze distorted elements of a play or novel; explain how these elements contribute to the effectiveness. 20) Select a conflict between a parent and child. Analyze sources or conflict, and relate to meaning. 21) Choose contrasting places which show opposing forces. Analyze contrast, and relate to meaning. 22) Discuss how a confidant(e) in a novel or play functions in the work. 23) Choose a work that evokes thoughtful laughter. Analyze why the laughter is thoughtful, and relate to the meaning of the work 24) Select a character who, though appearing briefly or not at all, is a significant presence. Analyze how the character functions in the work. 25) In a play or novel, select a significant character whose alienation reveals society s assumptions and moral values. 26) Identify spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation in the ending or a play/novel; explain its significance to the work. 27) From a novel/ply/epic poem, explain its uncivilized free and wild thinking. How is that thinking central to the value of the work? 28) From a novel/play, choose a character who is pulled by 2 conflicting forces. How does the conflict illuminate the whole? 2

3 AP English Literature & Composition Open Questions (con t) 29) From a novel/play, identify a mystery and analyze how its investigation illuminates the meaning of the work. 30) Identify delusional or eccentric behavior in the novel/play; explain how it might be reasonable, and relate this behavior to the work as a whole. (We may add more writing prompt suggestions to this list during the year) Final words of CAUTION: Do not write a plot summary instead of an essay, and Do not write about a film or movie instead of a written work. 3

4 The Summer Reading and Writing Program in AP English Literature A B Read two (2) novels or Read one (1) novel.jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice.Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Herman Melville, Moby Dick.Emily Brontë Wüthering Heights.William Faulkner As I Lay Dying.E M Forster A Passage to India Write two (2) essays, one for each of the two novels chosen from column A, or two based on the one novel chosen from column B. Essays should be a minimum of two (2) pages, double-spaced. (essay topics, taken from released AP exams of past years, will be provided on a separate sheet) Read one of the following plays, and write a character analysis (one page double-spaced minimum) of a character of your choice from the play. Include, in your analysis, your evaluation of the character s significance to the play: Henrik Ibsen, A Doll s House Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (or Oedipus the King) Thornton Wilder, Our Town Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie Note: these novels and plays will be discussed during the first few class days, but will also enter our discussions throughout the school year. 4

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